Posted on 07/06/2015 9:27:56 AM PDT by Zakeet
Washington state is under a federal court order to fix hundreds of barriers built under state roads and highways that block access for migrating salmon and thus interfere with tribes' treaty-backed right to catch fish.
But it's unclear how the state is going to come up with the estimated $2.4 billion needed ...
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Seems like we could buy Elizabeth Warren's kinfolk and a few dumb bears all of the fish they could possibly eat for a hell of a lot less money ...
Why cant the State just hand out the fish?
Have Google develop an APP for it.
“But it’s unclear how the state is going to come up with the estimated $2.4 billion needed ...”
Unclear? Since when has liberal state governments worry about coming up with money to spend?
Why does it need to cost $2.4 billion. They should have creeks unblocked anyway. Who screwed this up.
It is cheaper to taxi the fish to their ancestral breeding grounds. For salmon it is a one way trip. no need for a return ticket. Flooding the upstream ponds will make it possible for the fingerlings to sail through the locks on their way to the sea. AA one way bucket ticket should not cost more than a buck or two each. That will be considerably cheaper than building a river system.
40 culverts per year (high end estimate) for $155,000,000 per year ($310,000,000 per biennium) works out to $3,875,000 per culvert.
Those are some expensive culverts.
The state should have researched these things before building. I am sure that out of a certain hubris/arrogance they thought what does a bunch of Indians matter? Certain legal and constitutional arrangements of long standing were in place. It is not the welfare of a few fish that is under consideration here. It is Treaty provisions. Well, treaties with Indians as if they were functioning nations seems to be a foolish notion but it was done and the treaties have not been formally abrogated, or at least not abrogated in accordance with the treaty provisions themselves.
Why can’t they just buy the salmon from China like everybody else?.......................
This is pretty funny. The Feds are discriminating against round culverts in favor of “wide” culverts, with no explanation why the salmon can differentiate between the two.
That works out to $2,909,090.91 per culvert. $2.9 million per culvert seems a tad expensive to me. Or is it the "usual" government contract; $100,000 for materials and $2.8 million in graft.
What would Oregon do?
They'd find some Christian baker and MAKE THEM PAY.
Simple just increase all the sin taxes: marijuana, property ownership, alcohol, fuel consumption, tobacco, electrical, water use... yes they all qualify as sin tax in many if not most states in fact there are more sins which could quickly raise 2.5 billion, and as a bonus you have control over the behavior of citizens that’s how it is done in Liberal Land!
Can’t they give them the equivalent damages in canned salmon?
Don’t get hung up the word culvert. The existing culvert pipes have to be replaced with approved fish friendly passage ways. Then you need to account for approval from state fish and wildlife, corps of engineers, tribes, and what ever other agency that wants a seat at the table.
That number also is only for state highways and does not include city or county roads culverts that. The first order of business is to survey all culvert locations and determine if they have any connection with a fish bearing stream so they will need to hire a bunch of biologists.
As for the cost to the state they just raised gas taxes by 12 cents/gallon so they will shift some of that money to cover these new expenses. This would be an excellent example to apply the “new EPA” cost benefit standard that came out of SCOTUS last week.
Gov. “Inthley” will find a way to get into my pockets, I’m sure.
Give the aboriginal people some money to go buy the fish at the grocery store. It would be cheaper...and they would have more time to sit around and drink heavily. Win...win!
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